Collisions Higher Education vs Molecular Workbench

Collisions Higher Education is a digital game system for teaching and reviewing chemistry in college courses. It aligns with over 55 core concepts in introductory and general chemistry, organized into eight content areas: Radii Trends, Ionization Energy, Acid Strength, Lewis Structures, Ionic Bonding, Energy in Phase Change, LeChâtelier, and IMFs. Each game includes leveled challenges and an exploratory sandbox. Instructors can view student progress and performance in a teacher dashboard, and can use content overviews, quick start guides, formative assessments, and extension assignments. Instructor access is listed at free for US-based college and university educators. Student subscriptions cost $15 a year for a 12-month term; accounts are linked to an instructor’s class, and students register through an invitation URL supplied by the instructor. The product is listed for Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows. Playmada has ceased operations, while its FAQ says Collisions HE remains available and free to educators and students as of July 1, 2022. The FAQ also says the company no longer provides email, phone, or training support and directs users to a support forum.

Molecular Workbench is a free modeling tool for designing and conducting computational experiments across science. Its interactive learning environment supports science inquiry, while its authoring system lets instructional designers create and publish curriculum based on models and simulations. Users can customize simulations or create their own, with topics spanning gas laws, fluid mechanics, states of matter, chemical reactions, genetics, protein synthesis, and quantum phenomena. Activities can include assessments, student-data collection, learning monitoring, and teacher feedback. Simulations can also be embedded in blogs, wikis, or web pages. The Next-Generation Molecular Workbench brings computational experiments to browsers using HTML5. An offline version is available, but it cannot access the latest simulations or collect student data. Downloads are listed for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and require Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or later. The maker says the software needs considerable computing power and may start slowly while the Java virtual machine launches. Molecular Workbench is developed and maintained by the Concord Consortium.